Don’t Blame Capitalism

business_ethics_highlights_2The commentary linked below takes issue with notorious anti-capitalist writer Naomi Klein. The author suggests, among other things, that blaming capitalism probably both a) mistakes what capitalism is, and b) helps us forget our own roles in the bad outcomes we are criticizing. >>>

LINK: To blame capitalism for world’s woes is to shirk responsibility (by Cathy Driscoll for the Chronicle-Herald)

Q: A documentary film based on Naomi Klein’s 2014 book This Changes Everything was recently released. In the film, Klein seems to blame capitalism for problems related to climate change and global injustice. Is it really capitalism that is to blame?

A: The simple answer is that causality is never so simple. While capitalism is a complex, evolving concept, what is certain is that the capitalism of today is not what economist Adam Smith envisioned 240 years ago….

What do you think?

Note also: Driscoll also takes issue, in her commentary, with comments that BEH co-editor Chris MacDonald made here: What to Do About an Unethical Boss


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One comment

  1. Thanks for the link. Driscoll doesn’t actually link the structure of institutions logically to climate change either.
    She might have explored Adam Smith’s conception of enterprise and competition more closely. One can find a great deal in the classical tradition from Smith to Mill with which to ground a critique of corporate capitalism.

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